I’ve always been proud to be an early adopter of new technology, even when that technology wasn’t necessarily ready for primetime. When I got my first iPhone I was incredibly proud of Siri and her ability to direct me anywhere and everywhere. Soon after getting my phone I led a youth retreat at a cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Several of the students had spent the previous week at a camp 15 miles from this cabin, and I volunteered to pick them up and bring them to the retreat cabin. The cabin owner offered me directions to the camp, explaining that GPS often got the directions wrong. I declined her directions (since, you know, she’d only live there for fifteen years), reasoning that I didn’t have just any old GPS, I had SIRI! Long story short, the fifteen-minute drive to the camp ended up being a forty-five-minute tour of logging roads that included Siri telling me to drive across a lake. I ended up having to swallow my pride and call the cabin owner. Sure enough, her directions got me there smoothly and quickly.
Often times in life we are tempted to listen to the wrong sources. We listen to the media, to social media, to friends, to “experts,” and all sorts of other sources. Sometimes these sources take us down seemingly good roads, but many other times they take us on journeys we should have avoided. The TRUTH is that the advice we really need to listen to in our lives is that which comes directly from God’s Word. Check out these two verses:
Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:16
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and night. Psalm 1:1-2
Who are you really listening to? Are you listening to worldly sources, or are you listening to God? The scary thing is, sometimes the worldly sources seem really good (like Suri did to me). It may be an expert with multiple PhDs, a friend we’ve known for years, or a public figure whose positions we typically agree with. The advice may also tell us exactly what we want to hear, or seemingly prove our point of view. But, if it doesn’t come from God, then it’s not necessarily the Truth with a capital T. If you really want to get at the Truth then you have to focus yourself on the Word of God. Search the Bible and seek His Truth in prayer. That’s where you’ll discover a Truth that won’t lead you astray.
